1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to industrial processing machines and, more particularly, to automatic sawing machines.
2. Description of the Related Art
Power saws are well-known and are used in a wide variety of applications. Circular saws, for instance, have long been used as an economical means for cutting wood, metal, and other materials. Power saws may be used to segment a workpiece, to cut completely or partially through a workpiece, or to bevel or miter a workpiece.
In the past, a number of operations required to transform a workpiece from a first state to a second or useable state have been done in a manual or semi-automatic fashion. In manual operations, the workpiece is totally transformed to its useable state as a result of an operator manipulating the power saw and/or workpiece. In semi-automatic operations, a power saw may be adapted to manipulate a workpiece under the selective control of an operator. Of course, the success of either the manual or semi-automatic operations is limited, to varying degrees, by the operator's own capabilities and skill.
Typically, as the complexity of the operation on the workpiece increases, automation becomes more difficult and a greater amount of operator interaction is required. The cutting of miter-ended, extruded parts often requires the use of several machines with multiple set-ups and operations. The operator of a power saw performing these operations can spend a good deal of time setting up the power saw to make some of the more complicated cuts. Generally, this set-up can involve manually adjusting the elevation of the saw blade with respect to the workpiece, manually setting the miter angle to be cut, and manually setting any desired bevel angle. Even an operator who takes the time to perform these operations carefully does not always achieve the desired accuracy from cut to cut simply because the accuracy of the resulting cut is dependent in part upon the operator's technique in performing the set-up operation. It is not uncommon to find that different operators using the same equipment can achieve widely varying results, depending upon their techniques.
In relatively recent times, automatic sawing machines have become available for workpiece operations. For example, a number of commercial robots are available which are capable of performing various operations on a workpiece. These automatic sawing machines are known in the art to possess several automatic or semi-automatic features. These features may include the automatic advancement of a cutting blade into a workpiece and the subsequent retraction of the blade to a home position, the automatic advancement of a workpiece in the direction of workflow to a desired sawing position, and a computer to control some aspects of the machining operation. In fact, due to the high cost of raw material and labor, and in view of the aforementioned operator inaccuracies and the resulting waste, automatic and computer-controlled sawing machines are becoming economically more feasible. Of course, as the accuracy and repeatability of automatic sawing machines increases, so does their usefulness.
The present invention is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing the affects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.